What future for marine life in a changing world?
As the ocean undergoes rapid anthropogenic changes that impact ecosystems, the Michael Sars Centre’s strategy evolves to study life in context, from molecules to ecosystems.
Hovedinnhold
Multiscale questions call for establishing and strengthening partnerships, to combine expertise and improve our collective ability to tackle the problems of our time. Through collaborations with close neighbors at the University of Bergen, the Michael Sars Centre aims to build a comprehensive view of marine living systems in a changing ocean with new initiatives in research, training and education, and innovation.
Toward predictive models of marine living systems
The Michael Sars Centre is joining forces with the Computational Biology Unit (CBU) and the Theoretical Ecology group at the Department of Biology to launch an ambitious long-term plan. Using experimental data and digital representations of marine organisms in their environments, the new project aims to predict marine organisms’ responses to ocean variability.
“As anthropogenic pressure on marine ecosystems increases, we have decided to combine our collective expertise in molecular systems, computational models and environmental biosciences to explore pressing environmental issues”, Michael Sars Centre Director Lionel Christiaen explains. “By working together, we aim to characterize the complex interactions between marine biodiversity and ocean variability across spatial and temporal scales, from molecules to populations.”
“As anthropogenic pressure on marine ecosystems increases, we have decided to combine our collective expertise in molecular systems, computational models and environmental biosciences to explore pressing environmental issues” - Lionel Christiaen
World-class foundations in Marine Molecular Biology
Global changes impact an already variable environment to which marine animals have continuously adapted, as reflected in their evolutionary patterns. With a strong focus on evolutionary biology since its creation, the Michael Sars Centre has developed decades-long expertise in studying the driving forces of these processes, from complex cellular and molecular mechanisms to animal behavior.
Researchers at the Centre are involved in several collaborative research projects exploring how marine communities adapt to their environments. These include the pan-European consortium Deuteronoise, assessing the impact of noise pollution on marine invertebrates, a project on the quantitative effects of food scarcity on growth and reproduction of sea anemones in collaboration with CBU and the Department of Mathematics, and a study on the chemical underpinnings of ecological interactions in sea cucumbers involving the Department of Chemistry. “These studies illustrate the importance of multidisciplinary approaches that empower local academic communities to jointly address pressing scientific issues in Life Sciences”, Christiaen explains. “They embolden us to shift our strategy and work together to pursue bigger questions.”
Bringing the community together
CBU gathers theoreticians with backgrounds from biological sciences, computer sciences, mathematics, physics and chemistry. Research activities at the unit focus on the development and implementation of novel computational methods, and their applications in the pursuit of fundamental biological questions.
For CBU Director Nathalie Reuter, the new project is anchored in a long history of cooperation between the two Centres. “Given the importance of the marine environments and the challenges that lie ahead it is only natural that CBU wishes to strengthen its collaboration with the Michael Sars Center”, she says. “We believe that taking advantage of our strong quantitative biology and modeling capacity is a real asset when combined with the outstanding experimental capacity at the Sars Center.”
Michael Sars Centre group leaders Tim Lynagh and Pawel Burkhardt opened the Michael Sars Symposium 2025.
To kick-start the initiative, the 2026 edition of the Michael Sars Symposium is co-organized with CBU on the theme “Living systems in a variable ocean". Gathering local and international experts, the meeting will offer a platform to nurture connections, exchange ideas and foster interdisciplinary collaborations.
In addition, the emerging consortium ambitions to establish a Centre of Excellence (SEAstem), co-directed by Lionel Christiaen and Nathalie Reuter and dedicated to understanding and modeling marine life in a variable ocean at an unprecedented scale. By training the next generation of leaders in marine life sciences, the SEAstem initiative will empower the community’s ability to anticipate and address future challenges, from fundamental knowledge to public engagement and policy guidance.
